Image: Erika DeFreitas, to bestow/to absorb (back), 2019, photo-lithograph on kozuke paper, edition1/8, 25” x 18.5”. Printed by Pudy Tong under the auspices of the Open Studio Visiting Artist Residency Program.

Image: Erika DeFreitas, to bestow/to absorb (back), 2019, photo-lithograph on kozuke paper, edition1/8, 25” x 18.5”. Printed by Pudy Tong under the auspices of the Open Studio Visiting Artist Residency Program.

Erika DeFreitas
an object, a gesture, a scene (II)

September 8 - November 8, 2020

Visual Arts Centre of Clarington

It was in the way the figures were suggested. Draped in, then bounded by. Cloaked. Held. Shrouded. No holes cut out for the eyes. No breaths drawn, hollowing Os where the mouths might be. Postures outlined by pleats and puckers. It would seem still if not for the shadows and the gravel. Dust marking the tips of toes and narrow hems. Its scale unfair. Such a peculiar positioning. To be placed where it cannot be climbed and where no amount of leaning would stir it.

It was curious, this thing. All at once, an object, a gesture, a scene.

Thinking through the dichotomy of absence and presence, Erika DeFreitas continues a body of work that responds to two cloaked public sculptures encountered by the artist. DeFreitas explores the notions of what remains, what is suggested, and the possibilities that lie in ambiguity. Through a process of creating scores in a series of mediums, she deconstructs, redacts, and re-imagines possibilities when there are unknown elements. The works shown at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington will include a series of new and existing works in the form of works on paper, video, and photography.

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Hiba Abdallah: 100 years then and hereafter

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Cole Swanson: The Hissing Folly